Let Them Talk
by DisguisedasInnocent
Summary: When Ron and Hermione get into an argument she knows the entire school is going to talk about the secrets that were revealed, but she can't find it in herself to care about the consequences.


"Hermione, just think about what you are saying for a moment," The ginger haired boy yelled loudly as he grabbed her arm and tugged her back so that he was holding her in front of him, "You're telling us that you're going out with a fucking Slytherin!"

"I know what I said Ronald, you don't have to yell it to the entire common room." The brunette replied staring defiantly up into the boy's eyes.

"You don't know what you are saying! She's a Slytherin, and bloody hell, it's a SHE!" Ron replied with a roar.

Hermione rolled her eyes at the boy as she pulled back on her arm, "I know who she is Ronald, I have been dating her for well over three months now, and I would like to think that I know her better than you do."

"She's a Slytherin; they're cunning, crafty and downright dirty. They're bloody fucking liars, and nothing you say can change that fact because you have to be to get into Slytherin!" The angry boy replied as his cheeks flushed as dark red.

"You're just pointing out the bad side! You've no idea how intelligent she is and you've no idea how romantic she can be. You've got no idea about anything involving her! And you don't even know how much I love her!"

It was then that Harry's head popped up from where it had been hiding behind a sofa – normally when his two best friends fought he preferred not to get involved until the voices had gone down and they were more calm. However when he heard what the girl had said he couldn't stay out of the conversation, knowing that his best friend was in love with the Slytherin girl wouldn't change Ron's point of view. However if he was truthful Harry didn't mind whether someone was in Slytherin or any of the other houses, he was a firm believer that love was love no matter what. Ron on the other hand had taken a long time to come to terms with the fact that their best friend was gay.

"You love her?" Harry asked softly as he approached his two fighting friends.

The brunette's head spanned around to look at Harry as a startled expression spread across her lips at his words, "Yes I love her."

"And does she love you?" Harry asked as he moved to stand between Ron and Hermione, stopping the ginger haired boy from jumping into the conversation again.

"Yes she does." The brunette replied softly.

"I bet it's all just a stupid stunt that Malfoy put her up to." Ron mumbled almost under his breath.

"No it isn't you stupid arrogant idiot!" Hermione exclaimed looking at the boy fiercely.

"How the hell do you know?" Ron asked fiercely challenging Hermione.

"Have you ever been in love Ron?" Hermione asked the boy as she stared hard at him, "Have you ever felt your heart skip just because that person was in the room, or even felt yourself blush when they've brushed your skin? Until you've felt that Ron; you cannot judge me."

Harry ducked his head and thought about what the girl was saying. "Hermione, I'd like to meet Pansy, with you. Thank you for telling us." He smiled at the girl then happy to see her smiling back at him.

Hermione had always been his best friend, she believed him when no one else did, including Ron. The girl she loved deserved to have the same respect given to her as he gave to Hermione. It was only proper, and if Harry was anything he was a gentleman. Ron however was not a gentleman, and he wasn't as happy in the situation as Harry was.

"You cannot be saying that!" Ron exclaimed loudly at Harry, "You want to meet that damned Slytherin whore?"

Neither Harry nor Ron saw Hermione move but both of them heard the resounding smack as Hermione's hand came into contact with Ron's cheek, flinging his head back to the side from the force of the blow. "Do not call her a whore." Hermione seethed through her clenched teeth before turning on her heel and marching out of the common room.

"That was low even for you." Harry said in an almost disgusted tone as he looked down at the boy who was now clutching at his cheek before he turned around and raced after Hermione.

"Hermione!" Harry called as he tried to catch up to the witch who was stomping down the corridor. "Please slow down!"

"Ron better not be anywhere near here right now Harry Potter." Hermione growled as she turned around to face her best friend.

The raven haired boy took in the witch's stressed appearance for a moment before he spoke to her in soft tones, "He isn't, he's back in the common room probably nursing a swollen cheek and facing the wrath of the entire common room – again."

"You would think that he'd learn one of these days..." Hermione sighed as she leaned against the wall.

Harry moved so that he was standing beside her and awkwardly put his arm around her shoulders and drew her into a hug, "You would think, but apparently that skull of his is thicker than even you thought it was."

"Apparently," The girl sighed as she laid her head down on Harry's shoulder. "Do you want to come with me?"

"Where are you going?" Harry asked as he pulled away from the brunette.

"I was going to meet Pansy in the Library after telling you guys about us – we had a feeling that it wasn't going to go well, but I wanted to bring you along at least to properly introduce you two – I know you've been enemies in the past, and hell she was my enemy too, but that isn't the real Pansy Parkinson."

"I would hope not, or else it would mean that my best friend was not as intelligent as I always thought she was." Harry teased the girl slipping his arm around the girl's shoulders and laughing.

"I am the brightest witch of my age." Hermione replied, "Everyone says so."

"Yeah, and maybe you've let your head get a little too big after all that praise." Harry teased back as the pair walked down the abandoned corridors in the direction of the library.

"So tell me, how did you two get together?" Harry asked softly as they walked, asking the question that he had been wondering about for the entire time since Hermione told them who it was she was dating.

"Well, you know that McGonagall asked a while ago if I would tutor someone who was falling behind in Transfiguration. That was Pansy, though when she told me I wasn't going to do it, Pansy came to me in the library without the rest of the Slytherins and practically begged me to tutor her." Hermione started, gazing off into the distance as she fell into the memory.

- - -

_Hermione was sat in the very corner of the library with the sunlight filtering down to her through the large window just behind where her table was. The book she was reading rested on the table and she turned the pages idly as she finished one and started the next. The girl was surprised when she saw a shadow spread across her table and her book – normally when she sat that far back in the library no one bothered to come and find her. The brunette peered up from behind her curly locks of brown hair and gasped at the face that she met._

_  
"Pansy," She whispered softly, staring at the raven haired girl curiously. "What are you doing here?"_

"_Well..." The Slytherin drawled as she perched herself on the edge of the table. The girl looked almost as if she was embarrassed to be there which prompted Hermione to wonder what could manage to get the Slytherin Queen flustered. "McGonagall told me that you refused to tutor me, and without tutoring I'm going to fail Transfiguration... so I came here to ask you again if you would tutor me."_

"_Why should I?" Hermione asked, an edge of anger making its way into her tone as she looked into the dark brown eyes in front of her._

"_Because I'm begging you, one student to another, not as a Slytherin, but as a student to help me, I need to pass this lesson. I need to get good grades otherwise I'm done." Pansy sighed. "I've never been anything but a disappointment to my parents and frankly, I know that in their eyes I always will be a disappointment, but I don't want to disappoint myself in the process. Please Hermione, I need your help."_

"_Alright..." The brunette sighed, "I'll tutor you. Here every night for an hour, but you cannot tell the other Slytherins where you are."_

"_Thank you." Pansy smiled happily at the brunette which caused an odd sensation to pass through the Gryffindor's heart causing it to flutter._

- - -

"So that was the first time?" Harry asked as the pair wandered down the corridor.

"That was the first time, and it happened again when she came by the library that evening. Ronald and I had another fight that afternoon and so I wasn't in the best of moods when she appeared. I was begging her mentally not to start a fight. But she only sat down and pulled out her textbook."

"Wow," The raven haired boy replied, "She was actually nice?"

"Very, she complimented me as well, I was so surprised but by the end of the night I actually found I was enjoying myself. She was good company no matter how much stick she had given the lot of us before." Hermione laughed, "I was surprised myself when Mrs Price came over and told us that it was time to leave."

"I bet she is the only reason that you leave the library most times." Harry laughed as he playfully elbowed the girl.

"Hey!" The brown haired girl laughed as she slapped the boy around the back of the head. "That's not very nice you know." The girl grumbled.

The green eyed boy just smiled as they approached the large oak doors to the library, Hermione ran her hands along the smooth front of the doors as she and Harry moved to press them open. The doors slid open easily, partly from the force that Harry and Hermione exerted on it but mostly because of the magic that was flowing through them.

"Follow me then, she's supposed to be meeting me at our spot."

"Your spot?" The boy questioned in a confused manner as he followed his best friend through what he deemed to be a maze of bookshelves and tables, though he noticed the brunette in front of him didn't have any trouble at all navigating her way through.

"Yeah, our spot. It is where she came to me that first night and the place that we've had all our tutoring sessions afterwards – and it's where she first kissed me." Hermione blushed as the words past her lips but didn't pay any attention to the smirk that spread across Harry's face.

"That's cute Hermione," The boy grinned.

"Shut up," The witch replied as they broke through the edge of the bookshelf maze and walked out into a slightly more open area that was enclosed by bookshelves from all sides with one lone table in the middle. Harry was sure that this was the place that Hermione meant because he could easily picture the brunette being totally at home between the books, out of the way of people and prying eyes.

At the table Harry's green eyes picked up the figure of someone sitting in one of the chairs with their heads bent back staring up at the ceiling of the library. The girl's shoulder length black hair was cut unevenly at the bottom and her bangs occasionally seemed to fall in front of her eyes before a pale hand reached up and wiped them away.

"Pansy," The brunette called softly to the girl causing her head to snap around to look at the pair.

"Hermione..." The raven haired girl sighed happily, quickly standing and making her way towards the brunette, wrapping her up in her arms quickly and tightly. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," Hermione sighed as her own arms wrapped around Pansy slim waist, pulling the Slytherin girl flush against her.

After a few minutes of the girls not separating Harry subtly coughed to get Hermione's attention away from Pansy and onto him for a moment - it wasn't that he didn't like that Hermione was close with the other girl, he was completely comfortable with that it was that he didn't like being ignored when he hadn't met the other girl yet, at least not properly.

"Oh," Hermione flushed embarrassed as she turned her head to take in the raven haired boy who was standing there watching her and Pansy with a flush covering his cheeks. "I'm sorry Harry."

"No problem." Harry replied as he walked towards where the girls were and stood just a little way behind Hermione, trailing his eyes over Pansy's form and taking in her tight fitting Muggle jeans and t-shirt that seemed to cling to every one of her curves. The boy would have blushed again if Pansy had caught him looking but luckily enough for him the witch's eyes were focused in on her other half.

"Silly Witch," The girl teased as she passed a soft gentle kiss on the brunette's forehead before she pulled away and turned to Harry, "Hello there Harry."

At first the boy was surprised by the soft tone that the girl used but then he just nodded and returned the gesture with a smile, "Hey, I was told there was someone that wanted to meet me after Hermione here told us the news."

"I take the fact that Ron isn't here means that he didn't take the news that well then?" The raven haired girl asked softly as she wrapped her arm around Hermione's shoulder in a way that Harry recognised to be comforting.

"Taking things well is not something that regularly happens when it comes to Ron," The boy laughed shaking his head at the thought of his best friend, "And I admit that even he takes things a little bit too far sometimes with it, but he is a good bloke, if you just get to know him - and if he ever gets over his prejudices..."

"We're hopeful that he does, considering none of the rest of his family share them." Hermione added leaning against her girlfriend unconsciously causing another bright smile to spread over Harry's lips.

"I never thought that there would be something I could say that Draco was better when it came to friends..." Pansy trailed off before grinning, "Though the first thing he did try and do was get me to sleep with him and another girl."

Harry laughed because that was something that he could see Malfoy doing, along with being a complete ass to any of the girls that Pansy brought and introduced to her friends. "Have you told him about Hermione?"

The Slytherin shook her head softly, "We decided that it would be better to tell you first, because you lot have always been so close and everything... and well, Draco is one of my friends but we don't hang around together all the time like you lot do."

"Ahh," The boy hummed understandingly. "By the time we leave the library the rest of the school is likely to know anyways, Ron kind of blew up about it in the common room, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the talk of the school by dinner."

Concerned the Slytherin girl turned to her girlfriend, "Are you going to be alright with that Hermione? I mean the whole school knowing is a lot more than we'd planned to do today."

"I'll be fine, I don't want to hide the fact that I am in love with you." Hermione replied with a grin, "Let them talk."

The smile that spread across Pansy's lips spoke volumes for the way that she felt and then the kiss that she planted on the brunette's lips quickly afterward. It was soft and slow, as if each of the participants wanted to treasure every single moment of that kiss because it could be their last, but even Harry could recognise that it was passionate and loving.

The boy turned away from his best friend, the blush covering his cheeks was a bright red and the smile on his face was a happy one.


End file.
